Mike Taylor's Web Based Recruitment Blog with news, views and information about Mobile,Video and Social Media in Recruitment.

October 20, 2011

Louise Triance from UKRecruiter is putting on a conference with a difference!

End of Year Recruitment Conference 2011

At the conference on the 2nd November 2011 all the presenters will be renowned recruitment event hosts and organisers. So that means I will be presenting at a conference rather than hosting a conference like I normally do!

The conference will be a mixture of presentation and discussions and the speakers include:

Steve Huxham of The Recruitment SocietyAnn Swain of APSCoAlan Whitford of RCEUROBill Boorman, organiser of the #tru eventsGareth Jones of ConnectingHR Gary Franklin and Emma Mirrington of the Forum of Inhouse Recruitment ManagersSimon Stephenson and Heather Travis of the Executive Research AssociationMatt Dawson & Gillian Econopouly of the Institute of Recruitment ProfessionalsIndustry experts Matt Alder of Metashift and Andy Headworth of Sirona Consulting

I will be talking about "Why Recruiters Can't Afford To Ignore Mobile Recruitment."

P.S. If you want to find about more about Mobile AND Video in Recruitment and how they are changing recruitment then don't forget my next Mobile & Video in Recruitment Conference on the 17th November 2011 in London.

September 14, 2011

With Mobile Phone sales predicted to outsell Desktop PC's by 2013, and a new Smartphone or Tablet device launched almost every week, it should be no surprise that the interest in Mobile Recruiting is increasing.

Whereas the adoption of Social Media in Recruitment has gradually evolved over a number of years (although there are still lots of Recruiters not using Social Media in the UK) my view is that the Mobile Recruitment adoption rate will be much quicker.

I think the main reason for that will not be the Recruiters taking the initiative but instead it will be driven by user demand and frustration.

You can imagine the job seekers frustration "If I can do my shopping and banking on a mobile phone then why can't I search and apply for a job on my phone?

January 17, 2011

Enhance Media are holding their next conference on the 27th January. It is called “Online Recruitment Conference: The Year Ahead” and it will be the ninth year in a row they have held a Conference.

This weekend it was announced that the tickets for the Olympics would go on sale on the 15th March 2011. The whole Olympics project has been massive for the UK and one of the major projects that probably hasn't had as much publicity yet is the staffing of the whole event.

That is why I am looking forward to the speaker session from from Paul Modley, Head of Recruitment, about the planning and delivery of Britain’s largest ever peace time recruitment operation.

I am now pleased to confirm that YouTube will be speaking at the Conference which takes place on the 28th September in London. Details of the conference programme can be found here.

Both Mobile and Video are starting to become an important extra marketing channel for companies to promote their jobs and brands and we have some excellent examples during the Conference of how they are being successfully used today.

Full details can be found at the Conference web site, with a saving of £100 if you book by the 27th August.

July 14, 2010

I have been asked on a number of occasions about the type of video camera I use and how I put my videos on this blog, YouTube and on the Social Media In Recruitment web site. As a result I have written a short article (published below) which explains the equipment that I use.

However, it occurred to me that one of the reasons that people haven't started to use online video themselves was probably because they thought it was too complicated and expensive?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------How To Create Your Own Video

I thought I would share with you the equipment that I personally use so you can see real examples of videos on the web.

There are lots of video cameras out there but you can get a handheld pocket HD camcorder for just over a £100. Don't be mislead by the price as a few years ago a HD camera recording this level of quality would have cost thousands of pounds!

I personally use the Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera which importantly has an audio input jack which means you can connect an external microphone (which you can't do with many other pocket video cameras)

Once you have recorded your video you need to have an account with YouTube so that you can upload your video. You can also have your own YouTube channel which is free. Here is the link to my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/socialmediarec

Another advantage of the Kodak Zi8 video camera is that you can plug your video camera straight into your computer using the built-in USB connector and upload the video straight to YouTube.

YouTube will host your videos for free and send you free traffic. However you will also want to consider hosting the video on your own web site as well.

Editing Your Video

If you wanted to edit your video prior to uploading it then there are a range of video editing options available. Video editing software allows you to add graphics, branding and special effects to the video, plus take out any mistakes you may have made during the recording.

I personally use the Sony Movie Studio HD 10 Platinum (PC edition) video editing software which I find very straightforward to use.

Summary

There will always be a place for traditional video companies to make videos for you if you wanted to outsource your video production. However, if you did want to look at producing your own videos then you now have a list of affordable equipment to help you get started!

Questions

If you have any questions about online video, or if you have any video examples you would like to share, then please email me and let me know:mike@web-based-recruitment.com.

Thanks!

Mike Taylor

P.S. If you are interested in learning more about online video then I am currently working on producing a one day workshop where attendees will learn how to shoot, edit and produce their own videos.

March 23, 2010

With the Social Media In Recruitment Conference only four weeks away I am publishing some Speaker Preview Interviews in advance of the Conference so that people can see who is speaking and what they will be talking about.

Elkie was a delegate at the first Conference in July 2009 and I have invited her back to talk about how social media has impacted her business since attending (and implementing) her first conference.

If you are wondering whether Social Media could work in your recruitment
business then Elkie has some great information to share in this
interview, and lots more information to share at the Conference on the
22nd April 2010.

I caught up with Lucian and asked him to explain what he would be covering at the Conference, including details of any case studies he will be presenting.

A week after the video was recorded it was announced (3rd March 2010) that Lucian had been named among the Young Global Leaders for 2010 by the World Economic Forum. At the age of 26, he is the youngest Young Global Leader in Europe. Congratulations to Lucian!

February 21, 2010

I had the pleasure of speaking at South Africa's first Online Recruitment Conference last week in Cape Town, organised by Kris Jarzebowski , CEO of www.CareerJunction.co.za

There were 110 people at the Conference which was held at the the same venue where the draw for the FIFA World Cup was made at the end of last year.

There was a great line-up of speakers and it was a well balanced programme to cater for both Corporate and Recruitment Agency recruiters. You can view the full Conference programme here .

In my presentation I talked about setting up the Online Recruitment Mix for 2010 and beyond. Straight after me was Stephen Newton, Head Of Google, South Africa.

I believe Kris is looking to run a second conference but this time it will probably be in Johannesburg?

I caught up with Kris after the Conference had just finished to ask him about Online Recruitment in South Africa and how he felt the Conference went. There was also an interesting link to JobSite and Keith Potts in the UK!

This was my first visit to Cape Town and the Western Cape area of South Africa. It certainly is a beautiful part of the world and well worth a visit!

February 17, 2010

While I was away speaking at the first Online Recruitment Conference in South Africa last week (I will post more details about the Conference next week) the REC issued a Research Report about the use of Social Media In Recruitment to its members.

January 14, 2010

I was asked the other day what I thought the trends would be in online recruitment during 2010 so I thought I would share them here on my blog.

Online Video

I think 2010 will be a big year for online video. It has never been easier to make a video and upload it, especially with the new range of handheld pocket HD camcorders. You can literally shoot some video, plug it into your computer and upload it straight into YouTube (as I did with this video last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5atb5a-pM

Whilst videos taken with these types of cameras are not your typical professional, corporate videos, I feel that they will still have a place in recruitment.

Social Media

I think that this could be a key year for social media in recruitment.

There are more and more examples available where companies are using social media successfully and I expect the number of success stories to continue. However, there are still a lot of companies who haven't started to use any form of social media yet as part of their online recruiting activities.

It reminds me of when I first got involved with online recruitment some 10 years ago. Despite the benefits of online recruitment companies still didn't take the plunge straight away and gradually got involved some years later. I have a feeling it will be the same with social media!

Mobile Recruitment

It seems that use of mobile in recruitment has been the "next big thing"for years!

I do feel that specific job related applications for phones (not just the iPhone) will become more popular this year as companies and job boards continue to roll out their own applications.

With the rise in the number of smart enabled phones (where you can access the internet on your mobile) this has meant that web sites can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Also,some phones have the full HTML browser version on the handset now which means you can view web pages as they appear on your laptop or PC which makes it a far more pleasant job hunting experience than before.

So these are my three main predictions for 2010. Please feel free to agree, disagree or comment below.

I am fortunate to be speaking at Kris's Conference which I am really looking forward to. So, it looks like I am off to South Africa in World Cup year, just a shame that the football starts four months after I get back!

November 18, 2009

I am pleased to announce that both Google and LinkedIn will be speaking at our second Social Media In Recruitment Conference in London on the 22nd April 2010.

The interest in the use of social media is still growing and the conference will once again have a range of expert speakers to help recruiters get the most from using social media in recruitment.

The main subject areas for the conference are as follows:

Strategies for using LinkedIn as part of your online recruitment plans.

Insights from Google to help you recruit using social media.

How to maximise the use of Facebook pages as a recruitment tool for your company.

Key strategies for using Twitter effectively in recruitment, including the use of automated tools.

How online communities can play a part in your social media recruiting strategies.

The legal issues surrounding social media and employment.

Social media strategies for Generation Y job seekers.

Success Stories

There will also be contributions from delegates who attended the July 2009 Conference. They will share what social media strategies they have implemented since attending the first Social Media in Recruitment Conference.

October 27, 2009

I am pleased to announce that the UK’s second Social Media In Recruitment Conference will take place on Thursday 22nd April 2010 at the British Library in London.

Having organised the UK’s first ever Social Media in Recruitment Conference in July 2009 I am looking forward to helping Corporate Recruiters, Recruitment Agencies, Recruitment Advertising Agencies, Job Boards and Recruitment Industry suppliers get the most from the use of Social Media in Recruitment.

There were over 150 people at the first Conference which was a clear indication in the interest in Social Media. Next years conference will be held some nine months after the first one which means that there will be plenty of new things to talk about and discuss. In addition to the speaker slots (including case studies) we will also be having an interactive discussion panel and a chance for delegates to share their Social Media success stories.

2009 Conference Feedback

Some of the positive feedback from the July 2009 conference included:

“Extremely worthwhile, well delivered, relevant and beneficial”“Good, thought provoking content”“Well organised and great speakers, very informative”“Very interesting – heard some great things to take back to my company”“Excellent – ideal for my new business and great ROI”

2010 Conference Programme

The full conference programme, which will again feature an excellent range of speakers covering all areas of Social Media, will be published in the next few weeks on the 2010 Social Media In Recruitment Conference web site. Whether you are already using Social Media in recruitment, or are looking at ways to introduce Social Media into your organisation, there will be plenty of information and strategies shared at the Conference.

June 21, 2009

Catching up now after we exhibited at the CIPD Recruitment Exhibition last week in London.

We were based near the ShowcaseTheatre so we were able to hear some of the online recruitment related presentations.

I understand that it was not as busy all round as last year (this is the first time we had taken a stand) but there was definitely a strong interest in Social Media from the people we spoke to on the stand.

May 29, 2009

Web Based Recruitment will be taking a stand this year the CIPD Recruitment Exhibition at Olympia.

The event takes place on the 17th/18th June and you can find out more from the CIPD web site

If you are planning on going along please say come and say hello and we'll update you on what we are doing and how we can help you. We will also have details about the upcoming Social Media In Recruitment Conference on the 16th July.

October 17, 2008

Congratulations to Dan McGuire and Kelly Robinson at Broadbean on the news that Broadbean has been acquired by Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND), the digital division of the Daily Mail and General Trust. Dan and Kelly will continue to run Broadbean from their Canary Wharf HQ.

Dan kindly took part in the first of my Expert Interview Series in May 2008 so if you would like to find out more about the story of how Broadbean got started you can listen to the interview below:

Listen To The Interview

If you wish to listen to the interview in full (36 minutes) simply click on the play button below. Please allow a few seconds for the file to load.

Subjects covered in the interview:

How Broadbean got started, how their products and services work and how they can benefit Recruiters.

Some interesting stats and what Recruiters can do to get the most from the information the system produces.

Broadbean's global expansion plans, Dan's view on Referral/Networking sites, feedback from current users and working with young people and their attitudes to job hunting.

The advantage for Louise is that she already has a loyal following of subscribers (c15,000) to her regular newsletter, lots of visitors to her well known web site, plus she is well known in the industry.

What a great way to start a new venture. I feel sure that it will be a success from day one!

September 20, 2007

With online recruitment systems and processes getting to the stage where the first “human intervention” is when a candidate turns up for an interview when was the last time you looked at your own processes and just how interactive are they?

I remember when I first got invloved in recruitment. Having placed an advert in the local press I waited for two weeks for the responses to come in via the external mail before photocopying the applications and putting them in the internal mail (where they typically got lost!)

Eventually I would hear back from the line manager (at least a week later) about who they wanted to invite in for interview. Typically by then the candidate had got fed up waiting and was no longer available!

It is interesting that despite the many advantages that online recruitment offers there are still many companies operating in the scenario I just described.

Be honest, how interactive is your recruitment process? Are you still waiting for the postman?

July 03, 2007

With the iPhone being one of the most anticipated product launches of the year I think Apple may have missed a trick?

Bearing in mind that they have hundreds of job vacancies on their web site, and knowing that millions of people would be visiting the site when the iPhone launched (plus the volume of traffic leading up to the launch) to leave the "job opportunities" link in the bottom right hand corner of their web site seems like a missed opportunity?

Okay, not everyone wants to work at Apple, but what a great opportunity to promote working at Apple when interest in Apple is at its highest?

However, I guess this is me looking at it from an online recruitment marketing perspective, and not just the marketing of the product?

May 18, 2007

Google announced yesterday that they are going to be overhauling their search system so it returns "universal" results and not just those from web pages. This could have quite an impact for companies recruiting online.

It means that those companies utilising strategies like recruitment blogs, audio and video can expect to be found in the natural search results in the future.

We have been promoting the use of search engines for recruitment since 2001 and the changes announced yesterday will make it even more important to have an online marketing strategy in place for recruitment.

January 29, 2007

The latest NORAS (National Online Recruitment Audience Survey) results confirms that the number of people getting jobs online continues to rise. The survey provides a detailed overview of how 12 million UK online job seekers search and apply for work.

The key findings were as follows:

· 56 per cent of those interviewed for a job they found online, successfully got the job, up significantly from 44 per cent three years ago

· emailing a CV is the most popular way to apply for a job (38 per cent), followed by completing an online application form (31 per cent)

· 62 per cent use the internet every day

· 52 per cent have a mobile phone with internet access

· the average job seeker earns £31,600 and visits five sites when looking for a job

January 23, 2007

I've recently updated my guide to Online Job Hunting which I first wrote in 2003!

2003 seems such a long time ago now, and things have changed quite a lot in terms of using the internet to find a job.

When online recruitment first started most of the online job hunting activities revolved around job sites. Today there are now many different types of web sites (not all job specific sites) where you can find jobs online.

The guide was originally written to be viewed online to gain the benefit of being interactive. For the 2007 edition I have also included a PDF version so that job seekers can print the guide and view it offline.

The guide is ideal for job seekers looking to use the internet for the first time to search for a job and also includes some useful tips and advice for job seekers already searching online.

December 18, 2006

The last couple of weeks has seen a lot of coverage over the busiest online shopping days leading up to the Christmas holiday period.

There has been "Black Friday" which marks the beginning of the traditional Christmas Shopping Season in the United States where people visit the shopping malls.

Then there has been "Cyber Monday" which follows the Thanksgiving weekend where people head for their PC or laptops to go online shopping. (In the UK we seem to have had "Cyber Monday" on the 4th, 11th and 18th December!)

So come January what will be the busiest day for searching for a job online? Will it be Tuesday 2nd January, the first day back at work after New Years Day, or will it be Monday January 8th, the first full working week of the year?

Whatever day it is, there is chance you could miss out on some very keen job seekers if you don't have your jobs posted in anticipation of people shopping around for their next job move.

November 23, 2006

I had an interesting day in London yesterday at two recruitment events.

The first was at a Recruiters Lunch, kindly hosted by Jason Goldberg of Jobster. It was the first time I had met Jason, although I have seen some of his video presentations from various conferences on different recruitment blog sites. From the overview that Jason gave at the lunch I am sure they will do well in the UK. It was also go to meet up at the lunch with Alan Whitford and Peter Gold, fellow online recruitment bloggers in the UK!

In the evening I atttended the Recruiters Networking Event which was kindly hosted and sponsored by UKRecruiter , Broadbean and Jobster . There were three short recruitment related presentations from Ann Swain of ATSCO (Association of Technology Staffing Companies), Jason Goldberg of Jobster and Dan McGuire of Broadbean.

All in all, a very good day, with a chance to catch up with some old friends and meet some new people.

November 14, 2006

There has been a lot of coverage recently about the increase in popularity of Online Recruitment.

It has been suggested that over the the next 5 years (to 2011) online recruitment will grow significantly and there are some suggestions that it will rival the travel industry – currently the most successful online sector.

Also, a new Market Assessment report on E-Recruitment from market intelligence providers Key Note, forecasts that by 2011 nearly 2.1 million jobs will be advertised via online recruitment web sites, attracting an average of 32.5 million unique visitors per month.

All very interesting, but what will this mean in terms of job posting prices? Will it mean job posting prices will go up or down?

I've done a quick survey of some generalist job sites in the UK and listed their published prices from their web sites that relate to direct employers:

Job Board

Cost

Time On Site

Fish4Jobs

£199

28 days

Job Site

£299

14 days

Monster

£270

60 days

Top Jobs

£199

60 days

TotalJobs

£175

28 days

Workthing

£250

28 days

Unfortunately I don't have the price information from 5 years ago to see if the current prices have gone up or down. However, it will be interesting in 5 years time to see if any of these prices are still the same (I very much doubt it!).

November 07, 2006

Google announced yesterday that they are to trial a scheme where Google Adwords clients can place ads in more than 50 titles in the US, including The New York Times and Washington Post.

It has launched a three-month trial programme of its Print Ads service where it will work with 100 existing advertisers of its Google AdWords programme.

So what could this mean for online recruitment?

Well, having seen the move away from newspaper advertising to online for the last five years, and newspaper owners buying up job sites to protect their recruitment advertising revenues, could we see a move back to print?

Without seeing how the ads will look, and knowing out of the 100 clients how many of them are Recruiters, it is difficult to gauge just how successful it could be from a recruitment perspective.

However, whether the trial is a success or not I don't believe we will see a big move back to print as online recruitment is very much here to stay.

October 03, 2006

Following on from yesterdays purchase of Milkround.com for around £20 million by News International there is a story in the Daily Telegraph today that Dice.com have agreed to purchase eFinancialCareers.com for £48 million.

September 13, 2006

Got back from holiday this week to find an interesting report about Online Recruitment rising in use and popularity.

The report was from the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI), which is produced by Cranfield School of Management in the UK, who stated that more than 40% of the organisations they surveyed said they intend to increase the amount they spend on commercial recruitment web sites over the next six months.

The proportion of respondents using commercial job sites did not increase and remained at around 25%. The number of organisations using their own corporate web site for recruitment also remained the same at around 32%.

Just goes to show that there is till plenty of room for more companies to have their own careers web sites and use commercial job sites!

There were 1,078 participants in the survey and you can see the survey summary by clicking here.

July 20, 2006

Never a dull moment in online recruitment! Monster in the US today launched a vertical search engine under the www.FlipDog.com domain.

They purchased the original FlipDog business a number of years ago but have now relaunched it as a site containing (of course) jobs from Monster!

I have just done a quick search for the UK version of the domain and www.FlipDog.co.uk currently points to the US site. However, this may well change in the future to mirror what is going on in the US.

June 22, 2006

It was good to see some familiar faces at the Online Recruitment Exhibition & Conference on Tuesday.

I think it was back in 2001 when Tim Elkington and I started to speak on the TotalJobs Online Recruitment seminars. Keith Robinson, who used to run TotalJobs, was also at the conference and is doing at lot of work in the US and Europe, as well as helping launch Jobster in the UK.

The only person who wasn't there on Tuesday from the Total Jobs seminar days was Alan Whitford who was in Germany watching the USA in the World Cup. As I write this post the USA have just lost 2-1 to Ghana and sadly for Alan they won't be going any further in the World Cup. As Alan has been in the UK for 20 years I guess he now ought to start supporting England!

It was also good to catch up with Louise Triance from www.UKRecruiter.co.uk. Louise provides a weekly recruitment newsletter which is well worth signing up for.

Mike Taylor has a background in Online Recruitment and Online Marketing.
Mike runs Web-Based-Recruitment.com, an online recruitment consultancy offering advice to companies on how to use the Internet to recruit new employees.
Prior to starting Web-Based-Recruitment.com Mike worked in HR and Recruitment for IBM and Nokia. Whilst at Nokia Mike was responsible for their Online Recruitment Strategy, as well as being a member of Nokia's Global Advisory Board on Internet Recruitment.
http://www.web-based-recruitment.com